Low-Dose Gives A Big Boost

You probably haven’t heard of low-dose naltrexone, but it could help you.

You may not even have heard of regular naltrexone.

It blocks opiate receptors, which are involved with the pain control medications to which scads of Americans are addicted. It is also called “The Rescue Drug” because a person who has taken an overdose can be immediately saved — and brought back to conciousness — with a timely shot.

This is what was used on Rock Star Prince the penultimate time he took an overdose of fentanyl. Unfortunately (for Prince and for the musical world) nobody was around with this drug when he took his final overdose.

I gave the injectable form exactly once in my life, to an opiate addict (in France) who looked as if he were going to die of an overdose of opiates.

Such is not uncommon when opiate addicts need higher and higher doses of opiates to get high.

I saved his life. But unfortunately (for me) he immediately woke up and punched me in the mouth.

This drug precipitates immediate opiate withdrawal — and that is pretty unpleasant.

However, the alternative is worse.

This experience is emblazoned in my memory banks — I remember it distinctly as the moment I realized for sure I had absolutely not signed on for a glamour job.

I participated in a clinical trial of the oral form of naltrexone some years ago. It not only seemed to help people get off opioids but also seemed to help folks stay off alcohol.

Now it is available as a long-term injectable.

You may have heard of “Vivitrol” shots.

A doctor named David Gluck “accidentally” discovered that about 1/10 of the FDA approved minimal dose had a strange side effect. I put that in quote marks because it was a medical error. In this case, the result was beneficial.

In low doses, it seemed to somehow normalize the immune system. People with serious illnesses, Like AIDS, are now being successfully treated with this. Continuous clinical trials have meant it is now approved in several poorrer countries to treat AIDS, and it has plenty of other uses.

The people who are against it seem to be academics who call it “unproven.” It actually seems to me to work more often than many FDA-approved methods.

It has to be made by a compounding pharmacy in America, because the optimal dose is only about 1/10 of the FDA approved dose.

A dose of a drug that teency is essentially devoid of side effects, although it should not be given to folks who take opioid drugs or to folks who have had an organ transplant or some other illness or procedure where their life is dependent upon repressing the action of the immune system (which could reject an organ).

Everything in medicine should be a balance of the risks to the patient and the advantage to the patient if it works.

Sound intriguing? “Low Dose Naltrexone” (LDN)

Look it up to learn lots more.